The present invention relates to roadside assistance memberships, and particularly to selling and activating roadside assistance memberships.
Roadside assistance memberships provide aid to members having vehicle malfunctions or other roadside emergencies. For example, some common services performed as part of roadside assistance include towing, battery jump-starts, flat tire changes, fuel delivery, and vehicle lock out assistance. Roadside assistance memberships have traditionally been sold to consumers by a specialized agent associated with a motor club or provider of roadside assistance services. The agent would typically price the roadside assistance membership package in accordance with consumer information and background, such as the number of vehicles covered, past history, etc. Accordingly, the selling of roadside assistance traditionally required specialized vendors.
Roadside assistance memberships have commonly been marketed by first soliciting consumers to contact a roadside assistance vendor by telephone or by mail and, when the consumer contacts the vendor, selling and activating the membership in a single transaction. For example, a motor club agency would offer such services to potential members by direct mail or other advertisement. The agency would then wait for consumers to contact the agency to purchase the roadside assistance membership. The roadside assistance membership would then be sold and activated for the consumer by an agent of the soliciting party.
One problem with this approach is that because the solicitation and actual consummation of the sale are distinct steps, the prior art practices do not facilitate immediate impulse purchases by consumers in response to the solicitation, i.e. the consumer must take the active step of contacting the club in order to purchase the membership. Another problem is that because the sale and activation are performed as a single step, the sale itself often can not be completed until the consumer has all the information necessary to activate the membership. This makes it difficult for one person to purchase the membership for another. For example, a parent might find it difficult to purchase the membership for a child, unless the parent had the necessary information relating to the child.
The present invention provides a method and system for selling roadside assistance memberships that does not require specialized agents and allows for roadside assistance to be purchased as a retail item. The method includes providing a roadside assistance membership product package at a retail vendor; facilitating the purchase of the roadside assistance membership at the retail vendor; and activating the roadside assistance memberships by interaction between a consumer and a roadside assistance motor club or service vendor.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for activating a roadside assistance membership. The method includes providing a roadside assistance membership product package at a retail vendor. The product packaging includes a membership card. The card includes a tracking code and a membership number. The tracking code is transmitted by the retail vendor to the service vendor, preferably substantially at the same time that the customer purchases the roadside assistance membership at the retail vendor. The service vendor receives the tracking code and releases the membership number for activation. In one embodiment, the releasing for activation is by setting the membership number associated with the tracking code to an xe2x80x9cactive-readyxe2x80x9d state. After the sale is complete, the consumer contacts the service vendor to provide the membership number and the consumer""s specific membership information relating to the membership. Membership information used to complete the activation preferably includes the member""s name and address plus the names of any additional dependents to be covered on the membership as defined in the particular terms of the roadside assistance membership. If the membership number has been released for activation, such as when in the xe2x80x9cactive-readyxe2x80x9d state, the service vendor activates the membership to consummate the roadside assistance membership with the customer.